Inventions: The Sound Laser

In the sound beam's direct line, you hear the audio signal as if through headphones, regardless of background noise. Outside the beam, you hear nothing.

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INVENTOR WOODY NORRIS has developed a revolutionary technology called Hyper Sonic Sound that can direct sound the way a laser directs light. In the sound beam's direct line, you hear the audio signal as if through headphones, regardless of background noise. Outside the beam, you hear nothing. HSS works by generating two types of ultrasonic waves, both inaudible to the human ear. Once those waves reach an object (like your head), they crash together and re-create the original sound. Ultrasonic waves also conserve sound for 150 yards without distortion or volume loss. Companies like Wal-Mart and McDonald's are currently testing HSS for direct marketing in their stores, but other applications are less odious: Sony is trying to create speakers that could allow people in a single space to listen to different music selections, and the inventor envisions speakers that could send messages to swimmers in dangerous waters, or airport paging systems that make announcements to specific passengers.